The Refs Strike Again

Last night’s Packers-Seahawks game ended in outright controversy. Russell Wilson, Seattle’s quarterback, dropped back at the twenty-six-yard line, then kept dropping back, curled around, and finally released the ball from the thirty-nine. This was not the longest of Hail Marys, but considering this would be the game’s last play, and the Seahawks needed to score a touchdown, it was plenty long enough to be very improbable. At the ball’s landing point, there were five Packers and two Seahawks. One of the Seahawks, Golden Tate, pushed one of the Packers out of the way, then jumped into the air. He did not jump as high as M. D. Jennings, a Packer, who grabbed the ball. By the time Jennings reached the ground, the ball appeared to be in his chest, or as far into his chest as could be, considering that Tate had worked his arms part way around—or at least on—the ball as well. One referee came over and appeared to signal a touchback; another signalled touchdown. After further review: touchdown. The Packers, then the Seahawks, left the field (they had to be called back for the point after touchdown, following more ref confusion). Superlative descriptions of the travesty came quickly. Peter King: “One of the great disgraces in NFL history.” Troy Aikman: “These games are a joke.” And my favorite: “They’ve just filmed a Buffalo Wild Wings commercial on live television.”

There is now no reasonable way to defend the quality of the N.F.L.’s replacement referees. (Though let’s offer sympathy—someone was going to do this job, and it isn’t an easy one even without everyone being peeved at you.) Last night’s play was the most egregious example of the new referees changing the outcome of a game, save, perhaps, the ref who tossed his cap onto the field to signal that a receiver had run out of bounds, but did so at the feet of a different receiver, causing him to trip and fall. And the refs themselves seem to be tripping all the way to the review booth. Time was when you could stop by church Sunday morning, if you were so inclined, then watch your team play football in the afternoon, as pretty much everybody seems to be inclined, and still have time for a walk, a nice meal, and the expectation that Andy Rooney would finish his “60 Minutes” segment before 8 P.M. E.S.T. Now Rooney is gone, and we have National Football League games that approach four hours, even without overtime.

The N.F.L. is faced now with the reality that, though both sides in this case are motivated by money, the greed on the N.F.L.’s side is so outrageous as to have pushed football fans to the side of those they most often despise. Turning affections toward the referees does not seem to be a wise move for the league, long-term, but I suspect it may not matter. The most salient point in this debate came from Steve Young after last week’s Monday Night Football game, which had also been plagued by refereeing drama. “Everything about the NFL now is inelastic for demand,” Young, a business finance major at B.Y.U., said. “There’s nothing they can do to hurt the demand for the game. So the bottom line is they don’t care. Player safety—doesn’t matter in this case. Bring in the Division III officials—doesn’t matter. Because in the end, you’re still going to watch the game, we’re going to all complain and moan and gripe and say there’s all these problems, all the coaches say it, the players say it—doesn’t matter. So just go ahead, gripe all you want. I’m going to rest. Let them eat cake.”

After last night, Young’s tone had changed. “This is now kind of the ultimate disaster,” he said. “It brings it down, to a level of other things that we see in sports that‘s not the revered state of the NFL that we grew and lived and breathed and experienced and built. And it’s coming down.” Young reiterated, however, that the league would only fall so far. The only way for the N.F.L. to feel any need to make concessions here is if fans start to changing the channel. That game had more viewers than any other show on television. I suspect this week’s did, too, and next week’s will as well. We’re not turning off football any time soon, despite the fact that the frequent reviews and referee huddles have slowed games to a snail’s pace. (Mostly, I suspect, we’re simply realizing how little of our Sunday afternoons are spent watching actual football: eleven minutes of on-field action per game.) Player safety has been a frequent cry from the anti-replacements lobby, but issues of player safety have yet to turn fans away, and I suspect a few more jarring hits won’t bother most fans.

I realize I am perhaps alone, or at least lonely, in finding the replacement-referee saga more amusingly absurd than enraging. The players certainly don’t. “Fine me and use the money to pay the regular refs,” one Packers player said, after tweeting his crass criticism of the refs. These refs must go, but what, I wonder, will we talk about when they’re gone? Twitter has been awash with Democratic retweets of Republican demands that Goodell cave to the demands of his employers; a rare moment of political unity on labor issues. Whenever the old refs return, I give it five minutes until someone’s complaining about them, too.

UPDATE: On Tuesday, the N.F.L. put out a statement about the replacement referees’ call on the game-winning touchdown:

While the ball is in the air, Tate can be seen shoving Green Bay cornerback Sam Shields to the ground. This should have been a penalty for offensive pass interference, which would have ended the game. It was not called and is not reviewable in instant replay.

When the players hit the ground in the end zone, the officials determined that both Tate and Jennings had possession of the ball. Under the rule for simultaneous catch, the ball belongs to Tate, the offensive player. The result of the play was a touchdown….

Referee Wayne Elliott determined that no indisputable visual evidence existed to overturn the call on the field, and as a result, the on-field ruling of touchdown stood. The NFL Officiating Department reviewed the video today and supports the decision not to overturn the on-field ruling following the instant replay review.